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To: LLCF who wrote (23346)	9/30/2000 3:44:39 PM
From: Thomas M.	Respond to of 436258

from the Barron's mailbag: Slippery Situation After reading Cheryl Strauss Einhorn's column (Commodities Corner, September 25) and observing Secretary of Energy Richardson's verbal tap dance on Meet the Press, an interesting scenario is raised. There are some indisputable facts: First, heating-oil stocks are 40% below last year's at this time. Second, refineries are running in excess of 96% capacity. Third, heating oil must be available during the coldest part of the winter -- January-February -- if people aren't to freeze. President Clinton and his minions are saying that releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will make light crude available to make up the heating-oil shortage. But with such high utilization rates, where is the marginal capacity needed to make up the high heating-oil deficit? Are other distillate products going to be sacrificed to provide heating-oil refining capacity? Two of the distillate cousins of heating oil are jet fuel and diesel fuel. Are there going to be spot jet-fuel shortages grounding flights during the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas travel season? Are there going to be spot diesel-fuel shortages, causing shippers to miss deliveries during the Christmas season? Stay tuned. CHARLES BATES Florence, Arizona